, political stability. >> earlier, we spoke with a foreign policy spokesman, oneofangelamerkelchristian democrats, and we asked about what international security had to do with energy policy. >> country and a new chance for them because they would be a major decrease of the prices for energy in america. because of the shale gas and crude oil debate, this would change the geopolitical situation also in the middle east because not any longer setting arabia will be the field station for america. maybe this will change in 10 or 15 years. this is part of this conference. m staying with the energy sector, a u.s. oil giant, exxon mobil's, has posted 2012 earnings just shy of $45 billion. yes, that was billion. the second highest ever for a publicly held company, despite slight declines in its oil and gas business, the company improve its bottom line by about 6% compared to 2011. strong performance from exxon's refinery division helped drive the growth. the $45 billion mark is just a couple hundred million dollars shy of the all-time record set back in 2008 by -- you guessed it -- exxon. better